City commission clears hurdle for historic district home to install vinyl windows

Posted: Thursday, Mar 14th, 2013BY: ROGER LARSEN

HURON — One more hurdle is ahead, but the City Commission has approved an appeal of a decision that would not allow the owner of a house within the Campbell Park Historic District to install vinyl windows rather than wood windows.

Owner Phil McCaskell is reconstructing a portion of the house following a second floor fire last October.

Any work impacting the look of the exterior of structures within the historic district must be considered by the local board of historic preservation. The board recommended that wood windows be installed.

That decision was then reviewed by the South Dakota State Historical Society, which ruled that vinyl windows don’t meet the secretary of the interior’s standards for rehabilitation because they are not durable and don’t remotely resemble a historic window.

Earlier this month, the local board reconsidered the request. A motion to approve it failed on a three-to-three tie vote with one member absent.

McCaskell told commissioners on Monday that vinyl windows are not only half the cost of wood windows, they are nicer, more energy efficient and would make the house look better.

The windows to be installed are located on the back of the house on the second floor.

It was noted that when the commission was establishing the historic district it did not want owners to face financial hardships when they had to make changes. The McCaskell house is a rental unit that is requiring work because of the fire.

The historical society will now have to review the City Commission’s decision. Until it responds, a building permit cannot be issued.

Meanwhile, the commission elected to defer for one week a request to fully remove a covenant from what’s known as Lot 50, which is next to 1819 Cardinal Lane and faces 18th Street Southwest. The board decided to delay action so that letters could be sent to neighbors to make sure they are aware of the potential removal of trees in a buffer zone.

A 1990 covenant created the tree belt buffer zone between single-family homes on Cardinal Lane and multi-family buildings on Meadowlark Lane.

Last year, commissioners removed half of the covenant to allow other owners along Cardinal Lane to build fences, have garden sheds and install sprinkler systems in the trees in their back yards. But the commission kept the part of the covenant requiring that the trees remain.

David Yost is in the process of selling the two lots as one. Prospective buyers are asking that the covenant requiring the trees on Lot 50 also be removed so that a house may be built there at some point.

Lot 50 is unique because it is the only tree lot in the shelter belt that would have access to a city street and can therefore be developed.